Book 2-Deep Wizardry by Diane Duane

Author:Diane Duane
Format: mobi
Published: 2011-02-21T05:00:00+00:00

Summer Night's Song

There was actually a touch of humor in that cold, dry voice.

"No, I suppose not."

"So I go about my work with a merry heart," Ed said, "and do it well as a result. That should please you, I think—"

"I'm delighted," Nita sang, under her breath.

"—for spells work best, you wizards tell me, when all the participants are of light heart and enjoying themselves. I'll certainly enjoy eating you when the time comes 'round."

"Ed, that's not funny."

"It isn't?" said the Master-Shark, looking at her.

Nita stopped swimming, letting herself coast for a moment. There was something odd about the way he'd said that— "Ed, what was that crack supposed to mean?"

The look Ed gave her was expressionless as ever. "The Silent Lord is pleased to jest with me," he said.

"Ed!"

"Distress, distress, Sprat. Have a care."

Ed was drifting closer again, and Nita kept herself as outwardly calm as she could. "Ed,"

she said, slowly and carefully, "are you trying to say that you're actually planning to eat me sometime soon?"

DEEP WIZARDRY 247

"The day after tomorrow," said the Master-Shark in perfect calm, "if we keep to schedule."

Nita couldn't think of a thing to say.

"You seem surprised," Ed said. "Why?"

It took Nita a few moments to answer, for her mind was boiling with sudden memories.

S'reee's great relief when Nita agreed to participate in the Song. Her repeated questions to Nita about whether she was sure she wanted to do this. The Blue's silent, sad appraisal and approval of her. S'reee's re-mark about the Silent Lord's contribution to the Song being the most impor-tant of any celebrant—"the Silent Lord has the most at stake." And the wording of the Celebrant's Oath itself, with its insistent repetition and the line Nita had been so sure was ceremonial: "and I will blend my blood with theirs should there be need. . . ."

Nita gulped. "Ed," she said, "the Song, the whole thing ... I thought it was just sort of, sort of a play. . . ."

"Indeed not." Ed seemed unconcerned by her terror. "There's always blood in the water at the end of the Song. I am no wizard, but even I know that nothing else will keep the Lone Power bound. Nothing but the willing sacrifice, newly made by the Celebrant Summer Night's Song

representing the Silent One—by a wizard who knows the price he is paying and what it will buy. The spells worked during the Song would be powerless otherwise, and the Lone Power would rise again and finish what It once began."

"But—" Off on her right, she saw Kit looking curiously at her. But at the moment Kit meant nothing to her, and neither did Ed, or the chill silver light dawning in the water, or anything else. The manual's words, which she'd skimmed over so casually: those were what mattered now. The whale singing the Silent One then enacts the Sacrifice in a manner as close to the original enactment as possible, depending on the site where the Song is being celebrated. The shark singing the Pale Slayer then receives the Sacrifice.

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